


Another Time, Another Place

by richcreamerybutter



Series: Con Charlie Con Dio [2]
Category: Ghost (Sweden Band)
Genre: Angst, I just had to, NSFW, Other, Rescue, Semi-Public Sex, Sex, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex, charlie kisses phil too, papa lives, whooo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:47:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28388010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/richcreamerybutter/pseuds/richcreamerybutter
Summary: In another world, Charlie thought they'd better be ready backstage at Liseberg ... just in case.(AU of the ending of One Way Ticket Now Returned, written for a dear friend, which probably won't make much sense unless you've read that!)
Relationships: Papa Emeritus III/Original Character(s)
Series: Con Charlie Con Dio [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2079072
Comments: 17
Kudos: 15





	Another Time, Another Place

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CopiasWitch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CopiasWitch/gifts).



> PLEASE NOTE
> 
> This is a gift to CopiasWitch who's dealing with vaguely COVID-related boredom for a while. As such, I've written Charlie with a vagina in this scene, as that's how they read them. This might not fit in with how you personally read Charlie, so if you don't want to proceed, I won't be offended at all!
> 
> What I will say is that I have other AU-type stuff planned for Charlie that might suit you, I promise.
> 
> And to CopiasWitch - urgh you know what I want to say anyway. Thank you for letting me run all my sex by you since I have all the sexuality of a baked potato, but this might be shit since you didn't beta it!

I couldn't even try to enjoy the show. As high as I still felt from what had happened in his dressing room, my concern for what might happen now completely eclipsed it. There was a drumming in my chest that was solid enough to make itself known over the sound of the crowd, but it wasn't the thrilled drumming I always felt on seeing my favourite bands live. I felt physically sick. Surrounded by fans, singing and dancing and swaying together, I felt as though I were watching the scene from another plain. Charlie was not there in that crowd.

It almost pained me to turn away from the show, but I needed Phil to see me – and see how serious I was. He met my eyes with what I was sure was a frown.

'I think we might be about to have a problem,' I said. 'I don't know how else to say this. I need a huge favour from you.'

'OK. I mean, it depends on the favour …'

'I think something might ... might happen, at the end of the ritual,' I said. 'I want to try and get him out of here, and either … either you would come in handy as a distraction or a getaway driver. I'm not sure which, but … would you be willing to be one of those for us, if it came down to it?'

It was funny, how expressive ghouls could be with just their eyes and their body language. I saw the sigh he heaved, and I saw that it was totally in sympathy.

'Of course,' he said. 'Leave it with me. Don't worry.'

And in the darkness of the crowd, he found my hand.

*

We were still clinging onto one another when we sneaked away before the encore.

We had to be ready. I knew that much. I'd looked up the previous transitions between the Papas, and at the end of each tour, the next brother had come on-stage to take the microphone away from the last. If anything went wrong – or rather, if Nihil decided to interfere – it would undoubtedly be now.

It was so manic, so loud, that nobody noticed a small ghoul and a medium-sized Ghost fan go shuffling backwards through the crowd. We could have been rushing for a bus or a train, one that wouldn't wait until the end of the show, for all anyone knew. Phil knew where to go. He led me by the hand, and I marvelled at how cool and collected he appeared from the outside when I suspected that he, like me, was wrestling with the sort of anxiety that twists your insides up.

What was it Papa had said about him? _He is … a little strange. But I would say the least strange of all of us, if I had to choose._

I had him on my side. Thank God. Strange or not, that was all that mattered.

We barrelled through all the same doors I had emerged from earlier, and my heart fluttered when we passed Papa's dressing room. Even in my panic, the memories of earlier on sent a tingle shooting between my legs. If this went our way, Papa and I might be closer to a repeat performance than I could ever have imagined.

'Where do you think we should go?' I said, more to refocus my mind than for any other reason. Phil seemed to know what he was doing, but the closer we got, the more I wanted to know myself, too.

'As close to the stage as we can. I think if we can grab him as the show finishes, we should be lost in enough hustle and bustle that Nihil might get lost in it, too.'

'But what if Nihil is waiting for him?'

'Do you think Nihil could overpower us? We're younger, we're fitter and there's two of us. Not to mention Papa will be on our side if we wind up fighting over him. Come on, Charlie.' He squeezed my hand. 'Have some faith.'

The sound of Monstrance Clock, sludgey and vibrating through thick walls, reminded me how little time we had, yet how much time we would have to remain concealed if anyone found us. Sure enough, when we arrived at Phil's destination by the side of the stage, there was the usual assortment of roadies, techies and the rest. I wasn't sure if we'd be able to blend in. If anyone recognised me, would I flag up as an undesirable? Was Nihil that pissed off that he had spread the word that I might try to corrupt the band?

No one batted an eyelid, though. One or two people glanced over at us, but Phil being Phil, I think they were quick to accept that we were supposed to be there. I leant back against the wall, letting out a sigh, but keeping a tight hold on Phil's hand nevertheless.

He squeezed me back. 'It's going to be all right,' he murmured. 'Don't worry.'

I wanted to believe him, to let myself accept his words like a child when a parent spouts reassurances over something trivial that seems like the end of the world when your view of that world is so limited.

But there was a stirring, at the opposite side of the stage from where we were, that attracted my attention: two men, not ghouls, clothed like the spies of over-the-top films. I didn't recognise either of them. Judging from the way Phil stiffened, neither did he.

'Who the hell …?'

He just shook his head. 'I'll keep an eye on them. I think you ought to … to back off a bit, though.'

I understood. This situation was too pressing for me to be able to argue back. I stepped into the shadows, slightly further off the stage, and relinquished my grip on Phil's hand for the first time in a while. My new freedom left me vulnerable, and I wasn't sure what to do with my arm any more as I shrunk away from the action.

I could just about see Papa from here, though, as he moved to the front of the stage to draw the crowd in together, ready for the song's conclusion. And I could see the men. Both of them, as one leaned into the other to say something. The other one shook his head.

They could have been part of the show. Maybe. But I couldn't take that risk. That was why I was sneaking around in the shadows backstage, at the end of the day.

My eyes darted between Papa and the men. Papa was just doing his thing. He was still standing at the front of the stage, conducting the crowd in a rousing chorus. The show had been wonderful. They always were.

Then there was a stirring in the assembled road crew at the other side of the stage as the two men began to make their way onto the stage itself. I gasped outwardly – it was loud enough that no one noticed but Phil, and he turned to me, chewing on his bottom lip.

'This isn't part of the show?' I said.

He shook his head.

Mid-song, the men seized Papa by each arm. My scream was lost in so many others as they dragged him away, but my scream might have been the only one of genuine terror. For the fans, this could have been part of the show.

I turned to Phil, whose eyes were the picture of steely determination as he weighed up our options: I wasn't in the stage of weighing up anything, more just fighting the urge to sprint onto the stage and punch one of the men right on the nose, but they were both bigger than me. And Phil. Not that he looked as though he would be backing me up if I were to launch myself forward.

I sniffed, tears springing from my eyes. I brushed them away. Papa was struggling, but he, too, was far too small to make a dent in the two men's strong hold on him as they started to haul him towards where Phil and I were standing.

' _Phil_ …' I pleaded.

'Wait.'

He nodded to the other side of the stage, where sometime during the affray, Papa Nihil had surfaced. Thank God there was too much going on for him to have noticed us – but the more pressing issue, now, was the proximity of the two men to us …

'On three,' Phil hissed to me, 'we go in. OK?'

'Wait – go in and what –?'

'Go in and do whatever the hell we need to do to get them to let him go,' Phil said grimly. 'We haven't got time for a plan. There'll be no judgement from me if you play dirty.'

I braced myself with a deep breath and a nod.

'Right. OK.'

The men were seconds away, surely, from noticing us now.

'One – two –'

Papa was still writhing against them. That was what I had to focus on: setting him free. I swallowed bile.

' _Three_.'

And we launched ourselves forwards, each towards a separate man: they noticed us a second before we collided with them, and Papa only registered what was going on when the hold the men had on him loosened.

' _Porca putt_ –'

The element of surprise, I think, was the only thing we had going for us, but it was enough. In a frenzy of thoughtless panic, I sank my teeth into my guy's arm, and he curled it in on himself with a yell: Papa was free on my side. I didn't see what Phil did, but it must have been savage. Part of me still doesn't _want_ to know. Ghouls, I've learned, are capable of being rather vicious when they have to be. Papa has warned me not to get on the wrong side of one, at any rate.

Phil had hold of Papa's arm before I knew it, and we were sprinting away from the stage before Nihil, who'd moved onto it to address the crowd in Italian, had a chance to notice that his goons were not doing as effective a job as he wanted them to be.

'Charlie – shit – Phil –' Papa was stumbling over his words as we ran. 'What in Satan's name –?'

'No time for that now, Papa, we need to get you out of here,' Phil panted.

We were heading back towards the stage door, but I could hear shuffling footsteps behind us now, too. We'd had our few seconds' headstart but that was all we were going to get, and I could barely catch my breath from the exertion and the worry. We turned a corner and the stage door appeared, but there was someone standing in the way. Flashbacks to Sister Imperator in Nashville brought on another wave of emotion, and if not for the fact that I was clinging onto Papa's arm, I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep running as there seemed to be that little oxygen pumping through me any more.

As we neared the door, I could see that the person in front of it was in fact a ghoul. Tall and broad, with a slightly different visage to Phil's. Phil himself, though, didn't appear to be half as worried as I felt on seeing him. We slowed to a stop, my heart thudding.

'Aether,' he said, and Aether nodded.

'Hey,' he said quickly, giving Papa and I a glance, and I started – his accent was not that different from my own. 'I take it you know what's going down here?'

'Well, we know it's not good,' said Phil. 'We're trying to get him out of here but … they're following us.'

'Then we'll hold them off.' When Aether said that, with his power stance and friendly, warm voice, I had every faith that they would.

Phil nodded gravely before turning to me.

' _Hide,_ ' he said. 'I wouldn't leave the park, because that's what they'll think you're going to do. Just lie low until it dies down, and then … then we'll go from there. The priority right now is to keep him safe, you understand? Then hang tight. I'll come for you, if …'

He left that sentence unfinished, and the ending laid heavy in the air between us all.

I wanted to say so much more than just _yes, I understand._ Not sure if I was ever going to see Phil again, I wanted to thank him, a thousand times over, for everything he'd done for me. For _us._ For his support and his good humour and his lifts and the huge risk he was now taking so that I could free Papa from Nihil's clutches.

In a rush of affection, I kissed him.

'Good luck,' I said.

'And to you.'

And leaving nothing more than a fleeting smile behind me, I pulled Papa through the stage door, so that we spilled into the park and made off as quickly as our feet could carry us.

We kept running, away from where the crowds were leaving the venue and back towards the rides, and neither of us spoke. The ferocity with which he was now gripping me said everything instead as I glanced, panicked, around the rides for a place we could hide. Everything was shut right down, many places exposed and out in the open anyway, but as I was beginning to panic that we would run out of theme park I noticed the ride station for Valkyria. The main doors were closed, the doors the public would queue through by day, but the ride track had to go somewhere, and there was an opening for that purpose.

'Papa,' I gasped, 'could we climb up there, d'you think?'

He gave it nothing more than a fleeting glance. 'I don't think we have a choice, Charlie.'

Adrenaline, maybe, got us up there and into the ride station. Without the noise of the hydraulics and assembled thrill-seekers I would usually expect from a place like this, it was eerie as hell. Even having escaped a much more tangible threat, I couldn't help but feel imposed upon as I strode up and down the platform next to the sleeping ride cars, trying to get rid of some of the excess energy that was pumping around my whole body and making me tremble violently.

Papa had the opposite problem. He was leaning against a wooden wall, motionless and staring out at the track that took a violent upturn. In any other situation I would perhaps have been entertaining a churning stomach in frenzied anticipation of a ride on this thing.

 _One day_ , I told myself, trying to settle my mind. _Papa and I, sharing candy floss and holding hands on the big thrill rides ..._

'Papa?' I whispered.

He turned to me with a grim smile. 'It's … it's Europe's tallest dive coaster. Or so I am told,' he said – then his entire face crumpled, and he burst into tears.

I rushed towards him in an instant, folding him up in my arms and pushing his face into my chest, and he clung to me fiercely.

'It's OK,' I whispered.

And that was all I could think of to say, so I said it over and over again. I didn't even know if it was true, in all fairness. It didn't _feel_ true, not when we were hiding from his own father and his bodyguards in the middle of a darkened theme park – but in being able to hide, we had at least escaped one threat. However temporarily.

I just held onto him. I wasn't letting him go again, not for anyone. When I heard voices in the park outside, I kept him wrapped up in my arms, and we said nothing. Just waited until everything fell quiet, confident that the search had indeed left the park under the assumption that we would try to get as far away as possible as quickly as possible.

'Smart ghoul, that Phil,' I said eventually, into Papa's ear. I felt him tremble as he chuckled.

'Is that why you kissed him?'

I was glad he couldn't see me blush. 'I kissed him because that was how grateful I was that he helped me save _you_ …'

'Don't say that. We might not be safe yet.'

'We're certainly safer than we were fifteen minutes ago, sweetheart.' I wasn't a 'terms of endearment' sort of person, but I felt like Papa needed some extra TLC, and that was all I could really give him in that moment.

He leant away from me. His skull paint, naturally, was all over the shop, even more so than it had been back in the dressing room before the ritual.

'But you realise now,' he said, 'that you are on the run with … a wanted man? I'm sure this was not what you signed up for when you accepted my offer of employment.'

'None of this was what I signed up for. Yet I'm still here. Funny, that, isn't it?'

He looked at me with intent, as though he had a retort, but in the end he seemed to think better of it. All of his tension melted against me again, and I let my arms slip down to his waist. He turned his head to look back out at the track of the ride before heaving a sigh that sent a slow wave through his entire body.

'Is this where we are spending the night, do you think?' he said.

I kissed the top of his head. 'It's not a rose-petal-covered bed, but it'll have to do. At least Phil said he'd come for us when the coast was clear.'

'Phil heavily implied he might not be able to come for us.'

I swallowed. 'We'll just have to see. For now, though, I think we'd do best staying put. Sorry there's no champagne or heating, or … plumbing, or anything.'

'I've slept in worse conditions, trust me.'

'Oh, I do.'

There was a lightness surfacing between us, or as much lightness as it was possible to share when the setting, and the situation, were both so, so dark. Having my arms around him still was helping me. I wasn't sure if it was helping him – he had a lot more to contend with, after all – but he still had hold of me. That had to count for something.

It was cold, though, too. Sweden, September, a semi-exposed ride platform … I tried not to think about how much worse our situation was going to get, if we couldn't find somewhere more sheltered to hide. Phil would come for us. When it was safe.

He would.

'Charlie,' Papa said.

'Mm?' I had to drag myself back into the moment.

He turned to face me again. 'I don't think I'm going to get a chance to look up what _jag älskar dig_ means any time tonight. I think you're going to have to tell me.'

How could he be thinking like that at a time like this? Part of me wanted to give him a slap and remind him of the severity of the situation: but that part didn't reach my face, as my lips curled into a smile. My stomach, too, seemed to fill with something warm and soothing, calming my squirming guts.

'Do you really have no idea?' I said.

'Oh, I have an idea. But an idea isn't the same as reality.'

I gave his waist a squeeze. 'Papa, _jag älskar dig_ is the reason I would follow you to the ends of the Earth. It's the reason I came back after I left you, and it's the reason I'm here in this … this fucking creepy ride … keeping you away from whatever fate your father has in store for you.' I swallowed. ' _Jag älskar dig …_ you know damn well what it means.' I reached out a hand to stroke his hair away from his face. 'It means I love you.'

It made him cry again. That wasn't the reaction I'd wanted, but then again, this wasn't the evening either of us had wanted, either.

'I'm sorry …' he sniffed, but I shook my head.

'Papa, there's no need to apologise. We've been through this, haven't we? I'm here for you, whatever that means.'

'It's not that … it's just that my adrenaline's crashing … I would cry at _anything_ right now …'

'I know. I know.'

He waited until he'd regained some composure before giving me a proper response, though.

'I love you, Charlie,' he said. 'More than I thought it was possible for someone like me to love … anything. I wish I could be telling you this in more beautiful circumstances, but …'

'But I ruined those, right?' My heart was swelling, but I couldn't form words for the sincerity and strength of my emotions.

He rolled his eyes. 'You ruined nothing. Maybe you've even saved my life tonight.'

The thought of that – of the idea that, had Phil and I not interfered, he might be gone – compelled me to pull his face to mine so I could kiss him, hard. Maybe we were safe for now. Maybe Phil would make himself known when he came to find us. Maybe – just maybe – it was OK for me to share this with him, since there was nothing else here to distract us from the horrific reality of the night.

He wrapped both arms around me again, and I knew he needed the distraction as much as I did. My hand found his hair, tousled already from all the rushing around of the evening, and my tongue edged out to graze his bottom lip before he prised our lips apart to let me all the way in. Cold and dark, it may have been, but that wasn't the feeling between us tonight. I was surprised, in fact, by the passion he was exhibiting so quickly, moments after there had been tears smudging his face paint. Or perhaps it was _because_ of the tears smudging his skull paint?

I broke us apart, very gently. 'Is this OK?' I whispered, and he barely even nodded before covering my mouth with his again.

The adrenaline, still, maybe? The thrill of being alive when he came so close to …?

There was hardness in the front of his trousers and it was almost instinct that drove my hand down to grasp it – he moaned into my mouth and the sound sent a shockwave of arousal through me, arousal I didn't think was possible there on that chilly, dark ride platform. I gripped his cock with more purpose, wrapping my hand around him through the material of his trousers so I could try to coax a full erection out of him.

Then what, though? This was hardly the time or place.

'Charlie …' Papa gasped, against my mouth. 'Oh, _cazzo_ …'

'OK?'

He nodded. 'Just … don't … I'm so fucking close already, if you want me to do anything with this you need to stop right now …'

It pained me to withdraw my hand, but the speed with which he reached down to unfasten his own flies brought forth another surge of arousal. The heat between my own legs, now, was way past the point of ignoring. Convenient or not, appropriate or not, I had to have him.

He moved to the button and zip on my own jeans as soon as he'd freed his cock, and I had to show real restraint not to slide one hand down and sweep the pre from his slit just to have that contact. I wanted to touch him. _So_ badly. But I knew how much he wanted to pleasure me, too, and he would have been mortified if I'd accidentally finished him off with one stroke of his head with my thumb before we'd even got started.

Then two fingers, still in their white glove, were inside me, and I gasped as he curled them looking for my g-spot: my stomach swooped, my whole body tingling with it. 'Papa …'

He knew he was doing something right. 'Charlie?'

With his other arm, he span me around so that it was me with my back against the wall of the station, not him: the wood was scratchy and uncomfortable but the other sensations wracking my body made this stupid little detail irrelevant. He leant in to kiss me again and we found a rhythm, my entire body throbbing along with his fingertips as they massaged that beautiful spot inside me. Amazing, how quickly he'd taken me to the edge, considering everything. I leant back against the wall, allowing my legs to open and my mind to focus on the waves of pleasure that were so close to reaching their crescendo. Papa felt it in the desperate grinding of my hips as I tried to find the perfect angle that would send me over the edge: he'd been holding me with his other arm, but now, he pressed his fingertips to my clit and … _fuck._

I hadn't been expecting him to do that. I hadn't been ready to come: I didn't have chance to bite back my cries of ecstasy as my whole body tightened and my pussy tensed around his fingers, the new rush of wetness coating him. I could hear him mumbling praise but I couldn't make any sense of it. I couldn't have you told you where I was, in that moment. All of the adrenaline from the night had to go somewhere, and that, I think, was why I found it so easy to come undone in such an unsettling - and public - place.

We weren't done, though. Of course. It was seconds later, once he'd licked my slick off his glove as best he could, that he was guiding his erect cock inside me, and now I wrapped one leg around his waist to give him the room to angle off his hips and snap them forward and upward with a grunt. Wet from my orgasm, he moved easily within me, and to my surprise he lifted my other leg up around his waist, too, so that my weight was taken entirely by him and the wall. He had strength I'd never have thought of him, and he held me in place as his thrusts grew urgent and his kisses wet and clumsy until he suddenly stilled: spent as I was I still whined, feeling empty somehow, when the sensation of him moving inside me stopped.

'What …?' But he shook his head, panting, and I realised. We didn't have protection. He was taking care of himself before I'd had the chance to make that connection, though, rubbing his shaft up against my folds with desperation, and it wasn't long before he reached his climax with a moan that sounded almost wounded. His cum was a strange, welcome rush of warmth against the night air as it shot up between us, and when he pushed his face into my neck, I held him to me tightly to preserve some more of our flushed, sweaty heat.

'I love you so much,' he mumbled. He kissed the sensitive skin under my jaw. 'And I'm not saying that because I just came, Charlie. I really, really do.'

I let my legs slide down, supporting myself so he could relax a bit. He sounded on the verge of tears again. I twirled my fingers through his hair, and he made a soft, high-pitched sound that wasn't too far removed from the mewling of a kitten.

'I love you, too,' I said. 'I really, really do.'

I would have spent the rest of the night holding him like this, sharing in the afterglow, if I hadn't heard someone calling out for us.

Phil.

We were going to escape.

**Author's Note:**

> Eagle-eyed roller coaster/Ghost buffs will have noticed that this coaster wasn't built at the time this story takes place. I'm sorry! I only made the connection after I wrote it and it seemed like too trivial a detail to bother changing - but if you're anything like me, you'll have noticed and you'll be irritated, so I thought I'd better point out that I do know I dropped the ball.


End file.
